Social

Legal

Starting from the premise that if police or investigators had a solid, air-tight case against you complete with irrefutable evidence of your wrongdoing they wouldn’t be talking to you, this zine goes on to provide a detailed overview of many common tactics police use when questioning people. The subtitle basically says it all: “staying free by shutting the fuck up!”

This zine was released in 2012 for the anarchists who were caught up in a grand jury investigation of anarchy in the Pacific Northwest. While to some degree that investigation has run its course with the grand jury resisters being released from jail, the overview of their cases presents an important look at how grand juries function. The zine collects statements from the resisters, news articles, primary source documents, tips on what to do if you are subpoenaed by a grand jury, and a detailed history of how grand juries have been used as a tool to stifle political struggle. This is one of the most comprehensive zines on grand juries and is essential reading.

This zine is a compilation of articles from the animal liberation magazineNo Compromise designed to help activists better understand and resist grand jury investigations. The topics addressed include tips for dealing with FBI and other law enforcement, an explanation of subpoenas and how to deal with them, protocol for dealing with snitches and informants, and how to organize against grand juries. While the texts are aimed at the animal liberation movement, the information is helpful for a wide range of activists.

From the introduction: “This Guide presents a summary description of what a federal grand jury is, what to do if you get served with a grand jury subpoena, the Fifth Amendment right not to testify against oneself and how the government can compel you to testify by granting you immunity, what happens when you testify, and what a joint defense agreement is and how it can be useful to people who are being investigated. Many political activists have read “Know Your Rights” and “What To Do If The FBI Shows Up” pamphlets distributed by the National Lawyers Guild, the ACLU, and/or radical legal collectives, but most folks are not very familiar with the grand jury process. So, this Guide is designed to demystify that process a bit, and to offer some thoughts about how to protect your rights if you get drawn into a grand jury investigation.”

This is a very comprehensive “know your rights” zine published by JustUs NYC. It covers a broad range of legal topics that are of interest to anarchists and other political radicals. It begins by explaining what is and isn’t allowed under the First Amendment by providing helpful examples of scenarios and situations you are likely to encounter (i.e. at a protest or publishing a zine). From there, the zine moves on to discuss the Fourth Amendment and searches, warrants, etc, outlining your rights in various situations (i.e. in a car). There is a discussion of the Fifth Amendment and questioning by the state (including an overview of grand juries). This is followed by a section titled “Other Steps to Protect Yourself” that looks at high-risk groups, cyber rights, rights of people who are non-US citizens, gender, etc. There is also a helpful “Glossary of Terms” that defines basic legal concepts, terms, and phrases. This is essential reading!

This zine looks at Grand Juries in the context of the “Green Scare” harassment of environmental activists and provides an overview of that harassment combined with good, practical advice on what to do if you are subpoenaed to appear before a Grand Jury and/or approached by the FBI. This is basic, nuts-and-bolts information that everyone should know!

This huge zine by the CRASS collective provides a very detailed overview of their work providing support for arrestees at the 2008 Republican National Convention (RNC) protests in the Twin Cities. It provides an overview and analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of their approach, talks about how they did things (from running meetings to providing court support and everything in between), and provides examples of various forms they used (for arrestee intake, police misconduct report, etc). This is a very important zine that should help expand our collective knowledge-base as anarchists.